Low contribution of health extension workers in identification of persons with presumptive pulmonary tuberculosis in Ethiopian Somali Region pastoralists.

BACKGROUND: To accelerate the expansion of primary healthcare coverage, the Ethiopian government started deploying specially trained community health workers named Health Extension Workers (HEWs) in 2003. HEWs work on sixteen health service packages; one being tuberculosis (TB) control and prevention. However, their contribution to TB care and prevention services among pastoralist communities has not been evaluated. Thus, this study has assessed their contribution in identification of persons with presumptive pulmonary TB in Ethiopian Somali Pastoralist Region. METHOD: A cross sectional study with mixed approach of quantitative and qualitative methods was applied. A randomly selected cross-sectional sample of 380 pulmonary TB cases from 20 health facilities was selected to obtain information on the role of HEWs in the identification of persons with presumptive TB, and their referral. Purposively selected HEWs were also interviewed individually to obtain in-depth information on their in-service training and experiences with referring TB cases. SPSS version20 was used to summarize the quantitative data and test statistical significance using chi-square test and logistic regression model. The qualitative data was analyzed under the principles of thematic analysis. RESULT: Overall, 20.3% [95% CI = 16.6-24.5] of pulmonary TB patients were referred by HEWs; while the majority were referred by healthcare workers (52.6%), family members (13.4%), neighbours/friends (2.4%) and self-referred (11.3%). Out of all, 66.1% and 53.4% had neither received community TB health education nor home visit from HEW respectively. Multivariate analysis indicated that provision of community health education [AOR = 14.0, 95% CI = 6.6-29.5], being model household [AOR = 21.2, 95% CI = 9.5-47.3], home visit from HEW [AOR = 2.8, 95% CI = 1.2-9.6] and rural residence [AOR = 3.0, 95% CI = 1.2-7.7] were significantly associated with referral by HEW. The qualitative findings supported that HEWs' involvement in referral of persons with presumptive TB was limited. Communities' low confidence in HEWs, inaccessibility of TB services at nearest health centers and lack of in-service trainings for HEWs were identified by the interviewee HEWs as underlying factors for their limited involvement. CONCLUSION: The contribution of health extension workers in identifying and referring presumptive TB cases is limited in Ethiopian Somali pastoralist region. Increased community health education and home visits by HEWs could contribute to increased identification and referral of persons with presumed TB. HEW should be properly trained on TB through in-service refreshment trainings and supported by routine supervision. Further expansion of TB diagnostic services would benefit to increasing case detection.

Exploring barriers to reproductive, maternal, child and neonatal (RMNCH) health-seeking behaviors in Somali region, Ethiopia.

INTRODUCTION: Health-seeking behaviours are influenced by internal and external contributing factors. Internal factors include attitudes, beliefs and core values, life adaptation skills, psychological disposition whereas external factors include social support, media, socio-cultural, political, economic and biological aspects, health care systems, environmental stressors and societal laws and regulations. This study was meant to explore factors affecting health-seeking behaviors in the Somali regional state of Ethiopia. The study employed a cross-sectional study design using qualitative data collection tools. Data were collected from 50 individual interviews and 17 focused group discussions (FGD) on women of reproductive age and their partners, health extension workers (HEWs), health care providers and health administrators. To ensure representativeness, the region was categorized into three zones based on their settlement characteristics as agrarian, pastoralist and semi-pastoralist. Two districts (one from high and the other from low performance areas) were selected from each category. The data were entered, coded, categorized and analyzed using NVIVO version 11 software. The Socio-ecologic Model (SEM) was used for categorization. RESULTS: Using the social ecological model, the following major barriers for health seeking behaviors were identified. Low socio-demographic and economic status, poor exposure to health information or mass media, detrimental preferences of breast feeding methods and short acting family planning (FP) methods were identified barriers at the individual level; male dominance in decision making, the influence of the husband and society and the role of word of mouth were identified barriers at the interpersonal level and lack of acceptance, fear of modern health practices, unclean health facility environment, lack of well-equipped facilities shortage of trained staffs and barriers relating to distance and transportation were barriers identified at organizational and policy level. CONCLUSION: Overall, factors at various level affected health seeking behaviors of the Somali community. Socio-demographic and economic factors, non-responsive bureaucratic system, shortages or absence of medical supplies and human resources, lack of supportive supervision, a shortage of water and electricity at the health facility and an unclean service delivery environment are significant barriers to health-seeking behaviors for the community.

The impact of pastoralist mobility on tuberculosis control in Ethiopia: a systematic review and meta-synthesis.

BACKGROUND: Directly observed treatment, short-course (DOTS) is the current mainstay to control tuberculosis (TB) worldwide. Context-specific adaptations of DOTS have impending implications in the fight against TB. In Ethiopia, there is a national TB control programme with the goal to eliminate TB, but uneven distribution across lifestyle gradients remains a challenge. Notably, the mobile pastoralist communities in the country are disproportionately left uncovered. The aim of this study was to summarize the evidence base from published literature to guide TB control strategy for mobile pastoralist communities in Ethiopia. MAIN TEXT: We followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines and systematically reviewed articles in seven electronic databases: Excerptra Medical Database, African Journal Online, PubMed, Google Scholar, Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International Direct, Cochrane Library and Web of Science. The databases were searched from inception to December 31, 2018, with no language restriction. We screened 692 items of which 19 met our inclusion criteria. Using a meta-ethnographic method, we identified six themes: (i) pastoralism in Ethiopia; (ii) pastoralists' livelihood profile; (iii) pastoralists' service utilisation; (iv) pastoralists' knowledge and awareness on TB control services; (v) challenges of TB control in pastoral settings; and (vi) equity disparities affecting pastoralists. Our interpretation triangulates the results across all included studies and shows that TB control activities observed in pastoralist regions of Ethiopia are far fewer than elsewhere in the country. CONCLUSIONS: This systematic review and meta-synthesis shows that TB control in Ethiopia does not align well with the pastoralist lifestyle. Inaccessibility and lack of acceptability of TB care are the key bottlenecks to pastoralist TB service provision. Targeting these two parameters holds promise to enhance effectiveness of an intervention.

Use of a qualitative case study to learn lessons from severe preeclampsia causing a maternal near-miss: a case report.

BACKGROUND: Maternal mortality is a critical indicator in assessing the quality of services provided by a health care system. Approximately 99% of all maternal deaths occur in developing countries; where a majority of the causes of these deaths are preventable. CASE PRESENTATION: A 25-year-old, married, multigravida, black woman who has had six live births presented to a health center with the chief compliant of abnormal body swelling of 2 days' duration and loss of consciousness. On arrival to the first contact health center her blood pressure was 170/105 mmHg and her temperature was 36.5 °C. She had generalized swelling, a history of blurred vision, and headache. She had no history of abortion, stillbirth, and cesarean section and no history of antenatal care follow-up. She gave birth to her previous children at home with no history of obstetric complications. The gestational age at the time of arrival was 37 weeks. She was referred to a general hospital for further management. At the general hospital she was diagnosed as having severe preeclampsia and she was managed with magnesium sulfate and an antihypertensive medication for 2 days. She was counseled to have induction of labor by the attending physician but refused to give consent and went home. She returned to the referral hospital 2 days later after labor had started spontaneously at home and the delivery was a spontaneous vaginal delivery with outcome of a live male baby, his Apgar score was 6/10 immediately after birth and he weighed 1.9 kg. CONCLUSIONS: If there were no previous obstetric problems, the women perceived that she will not face complications in her future pregnancies and stay home until she had developed life-threatening complications. If women visit health facilities and if the health care providers are responsive and there is robust referral in place, maternal and fetal complications will be prevented.

Hand washing with soap and WASH educational intervention reduces under-five childhood diarrhoea incidence in Jigjiga District, Eastern Ethiopia: A community-based cluster randomized controlled trial.

Despite the tremendous achievement in reducing child mortality and morbidity in the last two decades, diarrhoea is still a major cause of morbidity and mortality among children in many developing countries, including Ethiopia. Hand washing with soap promotion, water quality improvements and improvements in excreta disposal significantly reduces diarrhoeal diseases. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of hand washing with soap and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) educational Intervention on the incidence of under-five children diarrhoea. A community-based cluster randomized controlled trial was conducted in 24 clusters (sub-Kebelles) in Jigjiga district, Somali region, Eastern Ethiopia from February 1 to July 30, 2015. The trial compared incidence of diarrhoea among under-five children whose primary caretakers receive hand washing with soap and water, sanitation, hygiene educational messages with control households. Generalized estimating equation with a log link function Poisson distribution family was used to compute adjusted incidence rate ratio and the corresponding 95% confidence interval. The results of this study show that the longitudinal adjusted incidence rate ratio (IRR) of diarrhoeal diseases comparing interventional and control households was 0.65 (95% CI 0.57, 0.73) suggesting an overall diarrhoeal diseases reduction of 35%. The results are similar to other trials of WASH educational interventions and hand washing with soap. In conclusion, hand washing with soap practice during critical times and WASH educational messages reduces childhood diarrhoea in the rural pastoralist area.